PRECUT GIRL

PRECUT GIRL (2009)
FR
Directed by Erik Dinkian

CAST:
Alexandre Leycuras - Max
Karin Shibata - Nami

PLOT:
     A young Japanese girl discovers that she cannot die. From then she will explore the moment of death by killing herself repeatedly.

REVIEW:
      With this review, the last of the directors and producers that contacted me last year is done. Again I must apologize for the lateness of some of these to the ones that sent me their films to review. So without wasting anymore time here's the review for Precut Girl.

     I really don't know where to start with this review. One of the main reasons why I put it that way is that this film is just dark. The tone of the film is set right away from the start. Nami, who is played by Karin Shibata, just found out she cannot die no matter what. What's so disturbing isn't the first time she tries to kill herself and succeeds, it's actually the second time. It's where she becomes possessed by her need to find out what lies after death. The secret to death. After getting a glimpse of it once, after each subsequent attempt to see that glimpse again fails she becomes more desperate to find ways to see it. Shibata is just wonderful in her portrayal of a junkie who can't get the fix she wants even though she has her drug of choice always available to her. Yet it's the end where we find out just how evil her character has become when she finds out a new way to satisfy her craving which is just chilling.

     The look of the short is almost like looking at art, as every shot seems to have been thought of before hand and pondered over. It's as if director Erik Dinkian wanted the audience who watches his film to suffer along with his characters in their wretched existence. This is shown more by the character of Max, who is played by Alexandre Leycuras. Leycuras's character is berated and beaten on by Nami, for his inability to give her what she really wants. It's only at the end that the story takes a much more sinister turn after Nami forgoes trying to die herself and decides to see what others see. Even though every time Nami stabs herself, or Max stabs her you actually don't see the knife go in, it's as if Leycuras understands that if you leave it up to the viewer's imagination about what's happening it's usually worse than anything that can be shown. This was a storytelling device used by Alfred Hitchcock to great impact in cinema. And used here it adds a impact that wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for it. This is a short film that actually left me drained mentally and in love with the film for doing what it was able to do.

BEST DEATH:
     I'm leaving this one blank for this film due to the nature of the film.

BEST LINE:
     I've chosen to throw myself beneath a subway train.
     It's not the way that appealed to me the most. But it's the most effective.

FUN FACTS:
     Director Eric Dinkian has directed three short films as well as written all three of them.